Writer Spotlight: Risa Wolf
Welcome to the 26th installment of Writer Spotlight. This week’s focus is Risa Wolf. I’ve reviewed 11 of Wolf’s pieces, 10 of them individually on InkFoundry’s “Get WYSR” feed. (In case you didn’t know, InkFoundry is a wonderful and free resource that aggregates short fiction and poetry pieces!)
Recurring Themes:
Yearning for Connection / Loneliness
Memory Loss / Repression
Ghosts
Animal Fiction
Protecting Loved Ones
Day One - Aug 13
Beth doesn’t ask for much. A view of the sky. A closed door.
“Build Your Own Heart” | WYSR Review
The Cherophan searches for a heart so it can understand people.
The Pairing: (Spoilers)
These two stories were pretty different.
Individually:
“Slivers” This flash has an emotionally abused woman and cracks in the universe.
"Build Your Own Heart” This was a funny and endearing piece about an angel, and involves themes of trying to connect/relate to others.
Day Two - Aug 14
3. “Wiggle All Happy” | WYSR Review
Maxie just wants their owner to be happy. Even after they’re already gone.
4. “Respect the Hustle” | WYSR Review
A possum tries to sell their cursed ticks to other animals.
The Pairing: (Spoilers)
Both these stories are from the POV of animals!
Individually:
“Wiggle All Happy” This story is a sad one, with a ghost dog and their grieving owner. The dog yearning to connect with their owner reminded me of “Build Your Own Heart.”
“Respect the Hustle” This quick flash has so much voice and rich language, it really gets the reader in the mindset of the possum. The possum learns some self-confidence. :)
Day Three - Aug 15
5. “The View” | WYSR Review
The narrator has a moment to look at Earth - but that means they have to take their privacy helmet off.
6. “In the Shelter of Ghosts” | WYSR Review
Rory tries to convince the ghost of her father to haunt the house she’s building.
The Pairing: (Spoilers)
These stories both have a melancholic tone to them.
Individually:
“The View” This flash had themes of social / physical avoidance and sensory overload, and so it reminded me of “Build Your Own Heart” and “Wiggle All Happy,” in that I could feel the longing to connect with others, even though everyone needed private space, especially the MC.
“In the Shelter of Ghosts” This story had protective ghosts, a plague / infestation, and themes of grief, memory loss, and wanting to care for others. The ghosts reminds me of “Wiggle All Happy” in that even in the afterlife, they are looking out for their loved ones.
Day Four - Aug 16
7. “Undertow” | WYSR Review
A poem about how empaths need protection from those around them.
8. “Tigers for Sale” | WYSR Review
Station cannot sleep, or it will remember things it is not allowed to.
The Pairing: (Spoilers)
This story and this poem were pretty different.
Individually:
“Undertow” This poem has themes of protection for the emotionally vulnerable and reflects on how empathic people can become copies of those around them.
“Tigers For Sale” This story is awesome! It’s from a computer/AI’s POV and has themes of protecting those it loves and memory loss/suppression, which reminds me of “Shelter of Ghosts.” There’s also loneliness and a yearning for connection that reminded me of “Build Your Own Heart,” “Wiggle All Happy,” and “The View.” The shadow puppets made me smile.
Day Five - Aug 17
9. “A Word to the Wise” | WYSR Review
So you want wings? Read this recipe. But read the whole thing first.
10. “The First Promise We Break” | WYSR Review
Seula is sick of people touching her hair. She leaves and finds love elsewhere, but her lover cannot be seen.
The Pairing: (Spoilers)
Both these stories have people entering contracts / promises.
Individually:
“A Word to the Wise” This is a snarky alternative format story with a twist at the end.
“The First Promise We Break” This one was a layered fairytale story with themes of consent, promises, the gods, and fairytale trials to overcome.
Day Six - Aug 18
Kari tries to stop draining her girlfriend’s emotions.
“Love Like Chocolate” This story explores the idea of an emotion taker, which reminded me of “Undertow” in how Wolf explores how emotions can be passed or copied from person to person. Now that I think about it, it also reminds me of “Word to the Wise” in how the MC was taking things from others without realizing it. I also really liked the descriptions of how emotions taste, and the explanation of how love is bitter and takes work to make sweet. Really good!
Emmie’s Personal Favorite: “Tigers For Sale”
Interview Questions
What are the themes you tend to return to the most in your work overall? Why do think that is?
Wolf: Most of my stories center grief of some kind, most frequently around a loss for which the protagonist feels partly to blame (whether they are or not). Even my funny stories have grief in the background, even though it might not make it onto the page.
I also love writing about people (or sentient space stations) finding their true power, not the power that someone pushes on them.
I write these themes because as a multiply-neurodivergent child, I spent a lot of time thinking I was defective in some way, or even dangerous, because of how I reacted to loss and trauma. I only started to understand myself after I turned 40. It’s been a lot, but I’m grateful for it, because I think my best writing digs into those revelations that both grief and power are rarely what they seem to be.
2. What character(s) in these pieces do you relate to the most?
Wolf: It’s got to be Rory, from Shelter of Ghosts. While Rory is not me (I’m absolutely not that good at customer service & I’d never choose a call center job), I used several of my experiences to craft her relationship with her father. Therefore, her struggles with loss in the face of an apocalypse still really hit me hard.
But Stace, in Tigers for Sale, is a close second. Knowing something is capital-W-Wrong inside of yourself, but not being able to figure out what it is or how to fix it? That was most of my childhood, so I identify with that a LOT.
3. How Has Your Writing Evolved Since You Began?
Wolf: I think I’m more aware of when something is a neat idea but that’s all it is, versus when something is a story that really, truly, only I could write. I’m also giving myself permission to be a little stranger in my writing, though so far very few folks have seen those stories.
4. Do you tend to start writing a story idea out of a particular element, like character, setting, or point of view?
Wolf: My writing is driven by character, in that I can’t write a story unless I know who I’m writing about. However, my process for finding that character is annoyingly diverse. Each character finds their way to me in a different fashion. For instance, Tigers for Sale came from a dream. That first long-ass line was narrated directly to me by said dream as my mental lens zoomed in on this virus-looking space station. I wrote it down the moment I woke up, but it took me two years of pantsing to find my way to the characters. It was the total opposite of how I started Shelter of Ghosts, for which I knew I wanted to write about a person who’d lost their father during an apocalypse.
5. What short fiction author do you look up to? Why?
Wolf: I’m going to echo Amanda Helms’ interview answer: I really admire every single person in my writing group. Amanda Helms, Aimee Picchi, Alexei Collier, Beth Goder, & Dawn Bonanno are all extraordinary writers, & every day I thank my stars that we got together & wish they got the adulation they deserved.
Amanda is so brilliant, illuminating details of parenthood & familial relationships, along with the oppression that goes along with that. Powerful stuff. I still cry over “Sever & Bind” and “The Worth of Ashes.” Aimee is amazing at turning expectations inside out. “Tailgating at the Wild Hunt” is a fantastic take on what the Wild Hunt is and what it can do, and “Search History for Elspeth Adair, Age 11” is genius. Alex’s talent for expressing deep stories through small, lush details is just enchanting. “6 Must-Have Sentient Spellbooks (and How to Find Them)” is my fave of his. Beth is astounding at making the most surreal, and sometimes most meta, stories natural and somehow inevitale, no matter where she takes you. I love “Please Properly Cage Your Words” and “Sunflower Loop” as examples of that. And Dawn is the best at bringing joy to tough topics. I recommend her short story collection, “Sunflowers in the Snow.”
I also adore M.L. Krishnan, A.T. Greenblatt, Effie Seiberg, Zin E. Rocklyn, Jennifer Hudak, and.J. R. Dawson. Everyone should look them up if they don’t already know them.
6. Do you have any piece, listed here or otherwise, that you would like to promote?
Wolf: I’d love it if sweet Maxie from “Wiggle All Happy” in Gavagai could get a few more mind pets. And thank you so much for doing all this work to promote so many people!!